"Cheer Up love, it might never happen!"

Being happy and staying happy isn't up to your genetic makeup or the hand life deals you, according to a 'happiness researcher' called Sonja Lyubomirsky from the University of California, Riverside, who told an audience at the American Psychological Association that people can add to their capacity for happiness through techniques that can be learned to boost their joy.

Lyubomirsky, a psychologist and author of the 2007 book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want, offered some of her happiness insights to a crowded room of psychologists who deal with miserable people all the time.

She said that the genetically determined " happiness set point" only accounts for about half of someone's happiness and 10% can be attributed to life situations. The rest — a great big 40% — we can do something about.

Studies Lyubomirsky has conducted using certain interventions in which people express gratitude and optimism are among those that do appear to make a difference and increase happiness, she says. So be thankful, and stay Relentlessly Positive...and see the difference it makes!